It seems everyone is talking about the recent statement made by talk show host Bill Bennett about abortion and black babies.

It is my understanding that Bennett is pro-life and opposes abortion. However, what everyone is so upset about is the fact that, as an example on his radio show, he stated that the crime rate would drop if all black babies were aborted.

With that remark, Bennett opened up a can of worms that I believe we should not try to seal back up. We must admit that there are those who think the world would be safer with fewer black teenagers. And it is important to know that Bennett is not the first person to discuss a link between African-Americans, crime and abortion.

On August 9, 1999, the Associated Press ran a story headlined, "Study Suggests Link Between Crime Drop, Legal Abortion." Its sub-headline read, "Researchers Conclude That Unwanted Children are the Most Likely to Break the Law." The authors concluded, in part, that those most likely to give birth to "unwanted" children are minorities and the poor.

In fact, the co-author of that 1999 study, Steven D. Levitt, is the author of the recent bestseller Freakonomics. This is the book Bennett referenced when he made his controversial comment. While Levitt's book did not tie race and abortion, his 1999 study makes it obvious that he must have had that notion in mind as he was writing the book.

It's telling about the agenda of Bennett's critics that they are focusing their rage on him rather than the source of such an abominable theory.

Black Americans must wake up to the ugly truth that there are many who think the answer to fixing our society's problems is to reduce the number of black Americans through abortion. The fact is that there are those who think blacks who reside in our inner cities are nothing more than poor welfare recipients who just sit around selling drugs and committing crimes all day.

These people believe that our children will only grow up to be worthless criminals, so they place abortion facilities at our doors. "We'll convince them that we are helping their race and making it affordable to kill their children," they must think. "And the big plus is that we can lower the crime rate!"

If what I am saying is not true, then why is it that abortion providers pick our neighborhoods to set up shop?

According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood of America, more than 90 percent of all abortion facilities are placed in minority and poor areas - mostly in the inner cities. The Cybercast News Service similarly compared the location of abortion facilities with population data from the U.S. Census in 2000, with the results bolstering the charge that the abortion industry targets black communities. Black people need to know this and see it for what it really is.

Therefore, in my opinion, Bill Bennett just brought to light a fact that has been well hidden since the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. To date, more than 14 million black babies have been targeted and killed by abortion. This makes abortion the leading killer of African-Americans.

Bill Bennett only spoke aloud about what some people have been thinking all along.

Though the media may try to divert our focus to chastising the messenger, I am praying that black America will look deeper in to the message and stand firmly against the notion that our black children are criminals even before they are born.

###

Day Gardner is a member of the National Advisory Council of the black leadership network Project 21 and the director of Black Americans for Life. Comments may be sent to [email protected].

Published by The National Center for Public Policy Research.
Reprints permitted provided source is credited. New Visions Commentaries
reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those
of Project 21.